The California Senate and now a key Assembly committee have passed a bill that would allow cities to charge businesses up to $650 for returning shopping carts stolen from them.

“[San Jose] Mayor Mahan has a homelessness problem and a budget problem, and his solution to solve both of those is to charge retailers more to get their stolen property back,” said Daniel Conway of the California Grocers Association

“The bill modernizes California law by allowing cities to immediately collect abandoned shopping carts, return them directly to retailers without a three-day waiting period, and recover the actual costs associated with managing cart recovery program,” said Cortese in support of the bill.

Assemblywoman Rhodesia Ransom, D-Tracy, who abstained from voting for or against the bill — which passed with zero “no” votes but four abstentions — shared her concern that it’s unfair to charge businesses for being victims of crime.

“This is not happening because of their negligence or nuisance,” said Ransom at the hearing. “This is happening because people are taking the shopping carts off the property, and I do not think it is fair to allow the city to impose something without giving them the opportunity to retrieve what is stolen property.”

https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_21bf061d-6733-4cd5-98ff-722b629b085f.amp.html